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It’s amazing what a little time away from work and the craziness of Shanghai will do to the spirit! My mom and I got home yesterday from a great four-night trip to Hangzhou and Moganshan. Despite it being a national holiday, it was the perfect time to go - the weather was, for the most part, great and we spent the holiday walking, biking, hiking, reading, drinking wine and eating. So today’s post will be about Hangzhou because I have too much to say about both places to keep it to one post!
I was borderline paranoid that our days in Hangzhou were going to be disastrous. Hangzhou is probably the most popular place to for the October National Holiday because the fall is probably the best time to go. But for the two of us, we almost enjoyed the hoards of people. As my mom said, “it added another dimension to the experience.”
The most famous attraction in Hangzhou is the West Lake, which is in the heart of the city. Luckily for my mom and me, we were staying at a hotel practically on the West Lake. Despite the fact that it took more than an hour to get from the train station to the hotel, once we were there we could walk (or bike) almost anywhere. Friday night when we arrived we just took a little stroll along a path along the lake, but on Saturday morning we decided to join the, literally, thousands of visitors and try to see it all.
We rented bikes that morning and set off on our journey around the lake. It started out alright with dodging the masses, but by noon the lake and sidewalks were so packed with people we could barely ride our bikes. And then there were all the “country bumpkins” who had most likely never seen foreigners before (at least a blond foreigner). There were countless “hello’s”, stares and people wanting to take a picture with the foreigners. It’s really funny the stark difference between Chinese people who do this kind of stuff who mean it in a polite way, those who can be rude about it and those where you can’t really tell. I think my mom finally gets why most of us foreigners get so annoyed with the shouts and stares.
I tried to mentally prepare for this leg of our trip, but I was worried the plethora of “China days” I’ve been having would get the best of me. I was also worried it would be too much for Mom to handle. Despite the massive amounts of people, we really had a fun time exploring the lake and a little bit of the city. Mom was such a good sport, too. She just kept laughing about all the people. If it was any other person I would have just given up and gone back to the hotel to take a nap - but she kept wanting to go out and see stuff.
And the lake was really spectacular and beautiful. Even with crowds of people, it was calming and relaxing to be surrounded by water a greenery.
After a long morning and afternoon of bike riding and exploring, we went to an outdoor show on the lake called “Impression of West Lake” directed by China’s Stephen Spielberg, Zhang Yimou, that night. We had seen another outdoor waterfront show that was directed by this guy in Yangshou last December, but the one in Hangzhou is much better. For anyone reading this blog in China who is debating whether or not to see the show - go. It was a neat story and the lighting, effects and backdrop were all beautiful! The only downside was that it rained the whole time, but, clad the poncho they gave us, we sat in the rain and enjoyed the show, once again laughing at our uber-Chinese experience.
After an eventful day and half in Hangzhou, the next morning we had a little time to go exploring another part of the lake that we hadn’t seen the previous two days (it’s a big lake) before heading off to Moganshan! We finished off our Chinese holiday with even more people than the day before arriving to the mountain were we would find the isolation and quiet we were ready for!
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